Re: Lost Photos

Online manual can say anything it likes. I'm tellin' you the damn thing stored photos WITHOUT an sd card.

My comment re the manual is that your phone must have been modified by the tech (as Gasai suggests). If I remove my SD card, I am unable to take photos. (It says something like, please insert SD card before using the camera).

Are you still able to do this without an SD card, i.e. even if they don't appear in the gallery, does your phone still allow you to take photos when the SD is removed?

Re: Lost Photos

‎09-09-201106:26 AM

silver6054 wrote:

My comment re the manual is that your phone must have been modified by the tech (as Gasai suggests). If I remove my SD card, I am unable to take photos. (It says something like, please insert SD card before using the camera).

Are you still able to do this without an SD card, i.e. even if they don't appear in the gallery, does your phone still allow you to take photos when the SD is removed?

Considering he cannot see the photos in the gallery any more, I would guess that the “SD card inserted” event might have triggered a script that cleans up the mount point, /mnt/sdcard. It would make some sense to re-create the directory to make sure it has correct ownership and permissions, considering the directory should never be used to store any files.

This would also mean that the DCIM directory might also have been erased, and thus the camera app should be unable to access/create it, outputting the default “Please insert SD card” message.

Though without an SD card, the gallery should say something like “SD card unmounted or unavailable” @ its main screen.

Re: Lost Photos

‎09-09-201106:30 AM

Now, when I unmount/remove sd card camera will not work.

For some reason camera was able to store photos internally before I installed the sd card. After card was installed no more internal storage. Where did the internally stored photos go? I'm convinced they're still there, I just can't figure a pathname to find them.

Re: Lost Photos

‎09-09-201106:43 AM

droidareeno wrote:

Now, when I unmount/remove sd card camera will not work.

For some reason camera was able to store photos internally before I installed the sd card. After card was installed no more internal storage. Where did the internally stored photos go? I'm convinced they're still there, I just can't figure a pathname to find them.

My conviction would go the other way, that, as G.Y. says, inserting the SD card caused a clean up of the directory structure, so those old files are no longer accessible via the file system (which is why the images don't show in the gallery). I would guess that there are tools to recover deleted files (as there are for Windows), maybe someone on the forum can help with that. But hopefully I am wrong and you are right!

Did you ever back up your phone (using something like a Nandroid backup) or back up your photos to a computer etc?

Re: Lost Photos

The problem here is that you cannot access most of your phone's storage.

It has a few “partitions” formed from the 8GB of internal memory; one holds the operating system and built-in software (like CityID and such), another holds cache, and then there's /data.

The SD card is the only “non-volatile” storage area available, as it never gets wiped unless you explicitly format it — and you never really need to. That's why the photos are usually stored on the SD card: they're safe there.

As for your question: the /data partition is actually partially accessible. However, it's entirely unknown what exactly did the tech do with the phone to make it store photos in the internal flash memory. He might have created a symbolic link, or he might have used some other approach — and there's no way to tell where in the end did he place the copied photos, and if they're now at all accessible without requiring root rights.

Do you possibly remember the estimate amount of photos you had stored on your phone? If the number is above 500 then there's a way to tell if they reside in /data.

Head to Settings → Storage. Under Application storage, you will see something like “Available space: 6.09GB”.

One 5MP photo (non-widescreen) takes anywhere from 900 to 1200KB. 500 photos would take around 500MB. So if the photos are stored in /data, you might see something like “5.50GB” under “Application storage”.

Re: Lost Photos

‎09-09-201106:49 AM

silver6054 wrote:

My conviction would go the other way, that, as G.Y. says, inserting the SD card caused a clean up of the directory structure, so those old files are no longer accessible via the file system (which is why the images don't show in the gallery). I would guess that there are tools to recover deleted files (as there are for Windows), maybe someone on the forum can help with that. But hopefully I am wrong and you are right!

Did you ever back up your phone (using something like a Nandroid backup) or back up your photos to a computer etc?

1st, Nandroid backups are only available to root users so the answer will be no.

2nd, there's no way to recover files on a ext2 filesystem without root access. You need block device access to the raw partition data.

I've just tried simulating an SD card on my own D2G and the filesystem where the mountpoints are created is mounted read-only by default, so it's impossible to store any photos there. It might have been a symbolic link, or, even worse, some weird hack that allowed the camera to use the internal storage.

Now, since USB storage mode can only access the SD card, I highly doubt Mr. droidareeno could back them up to the PC directly. The only way would be using the Gallery's Share feature to upload to a service like Picasa, Photobucket, etc., or to mail it.

Kindle, Amazon MP3 and all other “crap” as you rightfully and properly called those apps are preinstalled into the system storage space, which is essentially write protected. There is nothing you can do to get rid of these apps unless you enter the twilight realm of so-called “modding” that is shunned on these forums.

Alas, with a “true Motoblur experience” phone, the Android freedom is greatly limited, and it doesn't look like Motorola or Verizon want to give the users the ability to fully customise their phones (it's unknown if the Droid 2 and the Droid 2 Global will ever get their boot loaders unlocked — thus paving the road for bloatless firmware).

As for DROID2 GLOBAL, I'm pretty weirded out by the fact that the phone has 8GB of internal storage, of which 6GB is only available for app storage.

Re: Lost Photos

‎09-09-201108:04 AM

The D2G comes pre-loaded with an 8GB MicroSD card. Are you saying that when you purchased the phone you took the orginal, pre-installed card out? When you went and got a replacement D2Gand the tech "moved" your photos did he take the MicroSD card from your old phone and put it into your new phone? Third, when you purchased and installed the new MicroSD card to which you are referring was there something in the slot that you took out? My gut reaction to your story/question is that your photos are/were on the original MicroSD card and that you have to transfer the files from that old card to the new one you just put in. If your phone didn't have a MicroSD card in the first place then you didn't get what was supposed to be in the box when you purchased the phone. The D2G is supposed to come, out of the box with 8GB of onboard memory for apps and the OS and an 8GB pre-installed MicroSD card.

Re: Lost Photos

‎09-09-201108:22 AM

I purchased and installed an sd card in the original Droid (not a D2G) I purchased right after the phone was made available. When its screen locked up and had to be replaced w/ a D2G, I failed to immediately install the sd card. D2G did NOT come with an sd card (unless the verizon salesman stole it from me).

Photos from the original Droid's sd card were somehow transfered by zerizon salesman into D2G with NO SD CARD INSTALLED. It wasn't until several months after D2G was purchased that sd card from original Droid was installed so I could sync music. And no, I did not reformat the card when I installed it in the D2G. Photos taken w/ new D2G with NO SD CARD were stored somewhere in internal memory along w/ photos from original Droid. Photos from old Droid and new D2G are in there somewhere.

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